Schools say parents responsible for kids

Following Sunday's incident where school students were caught consuming liquor and smoking hookahs at a pub, educators of the city say that the onus is on the parents and law enforcers to check such illegal activities as schools are helpless in these situations. Snehil Sinha reports.

Following Sunday's incident where school students were caught consuming liquor and smoking hookahs at a pub, educators of the city say that the onus is on the parents and law enforcers to check such illegal activities as schools are helpless in these situations.

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School authorities say that exposure and availability of resources at an early age is one of the major reasons why students turn to illegal activities. "Students need to be given proper guidance but that is not happening as they have huge amounts of money at their disposal.

At our school we had issued a notice stating that no students should have Internet-enabled mobile phones. However, many parents protested the move. Schools cannot keep a constant watch on students without the cooperation of parents," says Aditi Misra, principal, Delhi Public School, Sector 45.

Anita Makkar, principal, DAV Public School, says, "Children are curious, want to experiment and defy the laws. So, it is the police's duty to take strict action against the pubs and bars which allow children to enter. Apart from parents and teachers, they also have a responsibility towards the children."

According to Surbhi Talwar, counsellor, DPS, Sushant Lok, the pub culture has been there for a long time but nowadays these are more in number and also easily accessible.

"It is a matter that no institution can control on its own. What we can do is inculcate the right values in the children starting early — at home, then at schools and the society later," she says.

Schools, however, have been providing value education and cyber safety guidelines to students. "We work with professionals and the police to inform students about the ill-effects of such activities," says Sunita Nagpal, headmistress, DPS, Sushant Lok.